Swallow the Moon
by Jack E. Peace
Summary: (USA's Helen of Troy) Set before Paris joins Helen upon the balcony, she wishes that there was something she could do to make it all right for her to love Paris.


Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. The song where I got the title from is called "Jupiter" by Jewel.   
  
A/N: We just finished watching this movie in Latin class and, let me tell you, I've never cried while watching a movie at school. But, this was very sad, was it not? But anyway, its set during the balcony scene between Helen and Paris, when he first arrives in Sparta. Please enjoy and review.   
  
"Swallow the Moon"   
  
Princess Helen of Sparta stepped out upon the grainy, yet wonderfully constructed balcony of her prison palace and gazed longingly past the walls and out at the velvet sky, watching the full moon as it shimmered in the water. How she longed to be as free as the water, as the stars and the moon, or even as wild as the untamed horses that she sometimes saw upon the hills, running as though they hoped to outrun the wind. 'But the stallions are foolish,' Helen reasoned inwardly with herself. 'They can outrun the breeze no easier then I can outrun the man who claimed to be my father.'   
  
Helen shivered when the night breeze blew against her alabaster skin, which had been bared for all man to see only an hour before, and she pulled her silk cloak about her shoulders once more, glad to be clothed once more. Despite herself, she couldn't keep from feeling ashamed by what had transpired, still heard the jeers of the pig-headed men as they leered at her. 'But they had not seen me,' she reminded herself, 'only the man I saw in the pool that spring day truly saw me. Just as he saw me then.'   
  
She longed the see that man again, to feel his gentle eyes as they stared at her, reading her clearer then she could read herself. Helen wished to hear his soft voice, speaking only to her, wished to feel safe and comforted like she never had, certain that she would feel such things when she was with him. But he was from a different place, and she was married to a man that was now her king, her complete master, and whatever promises that passed from their eyes to one another could never happen. Such a happy life could never be.   
  
"Why is it that life seems to come so soft and perfectly to others and paved with broken glass to some?" Helen questioned the empty night, speaking a loud as though she expected an answer that she would never receive.   
  
Her entire life, she had believed that she brought nothing but heartache, pain and death and now she knew that she had been right all along. Her father had been right when he had said those things about her the day of Pallock's funeral, yet Menelous had still wanted her. But Helen was certain that she would bring him everything her father had warned against, and knew that the fact that she didn't love the new king was only proof of this prediction.   
  
Helen walked closer the edge of the balcony and draped herself over the higher part of the wall, gazing downward at the palace guards that were standing resolutely by the entrance. Her gaze ticked across to the ocean once more, watching the quivering water and flickering reflection of the moon.   
  
Gazing at the water reminded her of the first time she had seen the gentle face of Paris, Prince of Troy. At the thought of his name and face, Helen felt herself tingle with a warm love and joy that she had never felt before in her life. If only things had worked out much better then they had! If only she had found Paris before she had been wed to man she couldn't stand! If only!   
  
"If only, if only, the woodpecker sighs." Helen mumbled, repeating the only words she remembered from the favorite childhood poem her sister used to tell her to get her to fall asleep. "I can live my life sighing 'if onlys.'"  
  
And it was true, she had thousands of things she wished were that had not been and wished were not that were. But, Helen felt as though she were meant for that beautiful Prince Paris, why would Fate make her feel things that could never be?   
  
"Oh Prince Paris," she sighed halfhearted, still gazing out at the glassy ocean. "Why do you feel me with such emotions when I cannot have you? You make me feel as though I could swallow the moon, for you make me feel that crazy."   
  
The gentle breeze carried her words away before anyone else could hear them, provided she hadn't been alone upon the roof of the palace. And her words held the truth, for thinking of Paris made her feel as though she was able to do anything, made her feel as though she was free enough to do anything. Even outrun the wind with the wild stallions.   
  
But all the freedom and insanity in the world couldn't change the way things were now; nothing could change the fact that she was already a married woman and that Paris was from a rival country, perhaps even sent as some sort of uncover spy. But Helen didn't believe that Paris carried ill intentions, she would have seen it in his eyes, for those voluminous eyes could hide nothing from her.   
  
Helen felt as though she would do anything to change the life she was now living, to arrange things so that it was possible for her to love Paris, who held her heart. She would even swallow the moon and outrun the breeze and the stallions, or swim the Agrena Sea.   
  
But nothing could change the life Fate had woven for Princess Helen of Sparta. Not even swallowing the moon. 


End file.
